Are first-generation Range Rovers high-grade classics yet? Land Rover clearly hopes so, having confirmed it will be featuring the Rangie as part of its Reborn program, which is currently producing as-new restorations of the Series 1 Land Rover.
This effort is clearly aimed at European customers, where the original Range Rover was launched as long ago as 1970 and has therefore had more time to burnish its classic status. Sales in the U.S. only began in 1987, and values haven’t risen here anything like as strongly as they have for early two-door Range Rovers on the other side of the Atlantic.
The first car to receive the Reborn treatment—which is basically a full teardown and rebuild of a carefully selected car—is the one you’re seeing here: a 1978 two-door with the spectacularly 1970s color combination of Bahama Gold over a Caramel interior. Power comes from an original-spec 132-hp 3.5-liter V-8 and is sent to each corner by a four-speed manual transmission. The plan is for Land Rover Classic to do an initial set of 10 Reborn vehicles, which will be produced by the team responsible for the reborn Series I. Owners will be able to specify their choice of color and period-appropriate trim.
They’d better be prepared to pay up, though. We’re told that prices for a Reborn Range Rover will start at the equivalent of about $169,500, well above even the top of the market for existing early Range Rovers. For example, we found this very similar-looking concours-grade Range Rover being sold by a well-regarded specialist for the equivalent of $94,000 in the U.K. (It was good enough to have been used by Land Rover as an exhibit at the launch of the current Range Rover.)
While the Reborn program may be far from the cheapest way to go, the good news for any wealthy Americans who fancy one is that Reborn-eligible Range Rovers will all be old enough to be brought to the States under the 25-year exemption from full federal testing.
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